Ma, Pa, Laura, Mary, and Carrie settle on the prairie land of Minnesota where runaway cattle, wolves, torrential creeks, a grasshopper plague, and a long blizzard offset the joys of a new house, school friends, church social, and the comfort of a town only three miles away.

A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.

Brian Robeson tiene trece años y una hacha, nada más. La avioneta en la que viajaba tuvo un accidente y se estrelló. Ahora él, solo, deberá afrontar los peligros que lo acechan y conseguir sobrevivir. Superará una prueba tan dura como ésta? The only survivor of a plane crash, Brian spends 54 days in the wilderness, learning to cope with only a hatchet given him by his mother and also learning to survive his parents' divorce.